Wood graining device



Dec. 10, 1957 G. D. HOUGH, JR

WOOD GRAINING DEVICE Filed April 12, 1955 Star Varnish of Minnesota Application April 12, 1955, serial No. soirsso Claims. cl. 41-5.!)

Company, St. Paul, Minx, a corporation This invention relates to a wood graining device, and more particularly to a manually operable article for creating ornamental efiects in the surface of a freshly painted object. p

A number of devices have been proposed for modeling, stippling and forming streaks in paint or a combination of paint layers after such paint has been applied to a surface and before all of it has become dried. Some of these devices employ stiff teeth and some employ resilient teeth. Some are arranged in the nature of a comb and others are more nearly like a brush. In all cases, however, it is largely the skill of the operator which achieves the special effect desired.

All of such prior art graining devices of which I am aware have been provided with rigid bodies having rigid teeth or resilient teeth of such stilf nature as will be adequate to m-ottle or blade wet or partially dried painted surfaces. The prior art devices are intended to be used on large open areas where the skill of the operator can best be evidenced. However, the stiff-backed devices previously used necessarily present but a small portion of their total toothed area where it is desired to employ them in small or cramped areas and upon contoured surfaces.

It is an important object of this invention to overcome the above noted difficulties and to provide a simple and inexpensive device which can be easily manipulated to create a pleasing ornamental grain or textured surface in fresh paint under a large variety of conditions of size and shape of the surface to be ornamentally grained.

It is another object of the invention to provide a graining device having blade or teeth portions which can be applied to small areas and into close quarters 'so as to completely and uniformly grain the surface at all areas thereof.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a device of the class decsribed which has spaced-apart blade members having stiff enough quality to blade the paint and thereby create a graining effect, yet having the blade members mounted in such manner in conjunction with a resilient back member which permit substantial contact with either convex or concave surfaces because the arrangement and spacings between the blades or teeth are such as to permit flexing into theprequire d Contact without the blades themselves flexing to any appreciable degree. H v

These and other objects and advantages of my'inv'e'iition will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the several views and in which:

Figure 1 is an isometric view of my device taken from a position above and forwardly thereof;

Figure 2 is another isometric view of the device taken from a position below and forwardly thereof;

Figure 3 is a vertical section lengthwise of the graining device and taken on the line 3--3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a side view of graining device in its relaxed or normal position; and p g I Figure 5 shows the configuration of my device when it is flexed in one of its directions to present a concave graining area lengthwise of the device. I

With continued reference to the drawing, Figured shows my device and particularly the construction of the back or body 10 as viewed from above. The back 10 is'constructed of moderately resilient material such as rubber or plastic material capable of bending under normal manual pressure and yet returning to its original shape upon release of pressure. The resilient back 10 has a medial flat area 11 which is preferably of uniform thickness as viewed in Figure 3 and is bounded by a thickened frame periphery 12 which provides a gripping area lateral to the surface of the flat area 11. In the normal position of the graining device shown in Figure l, the flat area 11 constitutes the upper surface of the back 10 and the opposed downwardly facing surface is designated at 13 in Figure 3.

Secured to the downwardly facing surface 13 or formed integrally therewith are a plurality of resilient strips 14,

each of which lies in spaced relation and preferably parallel to a neighboring strip, and all depend from the downwardly facing surface 13, as shown in Figure 1. It is preferred that each of the strips 14 extend somewhat beyond one of the ends of the graining device so as to produce squared free ends 15, as shown in Figure 1. The

blades are preferably of a thickness somewhat less than that of the medial area 11 of the back 10 but are formed with sufiicient stiffness to mottle or form a grained line in a painted surface, even wher'e'the technique'requires that thep'aint be partially dried or somewhat tacky.

A series of cut-outs or notches 16 are formed in each of the strips 14 and defin'e a gap of sufficient width so that the strip may be bent longitudinally to diminish the width of the notch or widen it, depending on the direction of bending or flexure. It is preferred that the notches 16 be evenly spaced in each of the strips 14 so that longitudinal flexure of the strip will be smooth and even. In order to obtain a balance of resilience between the. strips and the back 10, the cut-out notches 16 may be formed so as to fall short of the juncture of each strip 14 with the underlying surface 13 of back 10. In most instances, I have found that the notch should extend more than half the, way through the width of the strip 14, but fall short of the plane of the surface 13, It will be observed from Figure 2 that alternate strips 14av have their notches or cut-outs 16 inthe same relative positions while the alternate strips 14b likewise have their cut-out notches 16 in the same relative positions with respect to each of the alternate strips 14b, but off-set with respect to the notches formed in the alternate strips 14a, all as illustrated in Figure 2 7 I In furtherance of balancing the flexure er the" entire device, 1 provide a resilient web structure 17 at one end of my device and another web structure 18 located wardly from the extensions 15 of s'trip l4, ja s 'shown in Figure 2, Additional internal webs are formed at 19 to complete the resilient reinforcing of the device.

web members are preferably fanned er the same resilientmaterial as the rest of the device and may be secured thereto or formed integrally therewith as may be desired.

Each of the strips 14 in its notched condition forms a series of teeth or blades 20, all terminating downwardly in straight edges 21 normally lying in the same plane. It is these edges 21 which contact the painted surface and form the ornamentation therein during use of my device. An additional working edge 22 is provided at right angles to the plane normally formed by the edges 21, and these edges 22 are likewise in alignment, one with the other, at the outward projecting extensions 15 3 of the plurality of blades 14, as shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3. These edges 22 are useful in graining narrow or cramped areas which cannot normally be reached by an ordinary graining or stippling device.-

In the use and operation of my graining device, it will be obvious from the foregoing description that the blades or teeth 20 have sufiicient stiffness to wipe or blade a painted surface and yet the entire device may be flexed longitudinally 'or laterally so as to create a curvature in the device which, in turn, will permit all or most of the blade edges to simultaneously contact the curved surface and, hence, operate in the same conventional manner to produce a similar characteristic surface ornamentation. Since the cut-outs or notches 16 are balanced in relation to one another and to the entire device, flexure will be smooth and even, as illustrated in Figure 5, when the device is bent or flexed in any direction. .In the illustrated flexure of Figure 5, the back is fiexed concavely in a lengthwise direction which, in turn, causes a convex flexure of the bottom edges 21, as shown. In this instance, all of the notches 16 are caused to diverge to permit the uniform flexing of the device. As will be obvious, the cut-outs or notches 16 will converge as the flexure is reversed.

The same quality of graining may thus be accomplished on a curved surface as on a flat surface and no tell-tale crudeness nor obvious deviation need occur as in the case of the stiff-backed prior art devices which present only a corner or inadequate edge area to the surface to be grained.

Since the peripheral thickened portion 12 presents an area both above and below the general plane of the medial area of back 10, manual pressure may be exerted at either side of this plane to easily cause the device to flex concavely or'convexly as desired. For slightly contoured surfaces, the operator need only press the device into contact therewith without any material manual assistance in the flexing thereof.

When cramped quarters are encountered or where sharp corners and small areas occur, the device may be tilted on end and the edges 22 employed for graining effect. Since the edges 22 constitute the terminii of strip extensions 15, they will be spaced laterally the same as the edges 21 in adjacent strips 14 and, hence, may be employed to simulate generally the graining effect obtained by the edges 21.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, detail, arrangement and proportion of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. A graining device for imparting ornamentation to painted surfaces which comprises, a resiliently bendable body having an upwardly facing surface and a downwardly facing surface and a thickened peripheral portion extending laterally from opposed surfaces thereof and adapted to be grasped in the hand of a user at said opposed surfaces, a pluarlity of blades secured to and depending from the downwardly facing surface and terminating in free straight edges all lying in substantially the same plane and oriented in the same general direction, said resilient body being operably bendable into a curved conformation and said blade edges then defining a similarly curved surface for contacting and graining a painted surface of the same general curvature.

2. A graining device for imparting ornamentation to painted surfaces which comprises, a resiliently bendable back having a medial area bounded by a thickened periphery adapted to be grasped by the hand of a user, said medial area presenting an upwardly facing surface and a downwardly facing surface, a plurality of resilient blades arranged in row formation, each of said rows being spaced and parallel and the blades in each of said rows terminating downwardly in free straight edges in discontinuous alignment and all normally lying in substantially the same plane, said resilient body being operably bendable into a curved conformation wherein said discontinuous blade edges may be brought into simultaneous contact with a curved painted surface.

3. A graining device for imparting ornamentation to painted surfaces which comprises, a resiliently bendable back member having a pair of opposed edges normally capable of being held in the hand of a user, a series of resilient strips secured to said back and presenting outer edges normally lying in a common plane, each of said strips being provided with spaced cut-out notches extending from the outer edge thereof inwardly, said strips permitting flexure of said back to conform said edges to a contoured painted surface.

4. A graining device for imparting ornamentation to painted surfaces which comprises, a resiliently bendable back member having a pair of spaced edges normally capable of being held in the hand of a user, a series of resilient strips secured to said back and presenting outer edges normally lying in a common plane, each of said strips being provided with cut-out notches evenly spaced therealong to cause uniform flexure of the back member and said strips, said cut-out notches widening and diminishing with flexure and permitting conformance of said edges to curved painted surfaces.

5. A graining device for imparting ornamentation to painted surfaces which comprises, a resiliently bendable and normally fiat back having a rearward and a forward surface, finger pressure members peripherally mounted in endwise opposed relation with respect to said bendable back and each extending laterally of the rearward and forward faces thereof, a plurality of resilient blades secured edgewise to the forward surface of said bendable body and arranged in row formation, each row being in spaced and parallel relation with the others and the blades in each of said rows terminating downwardly in free straight edges discontinuously aligned and all normally lying in substantially the same plane, said bendable body upon convergent finger pressure being capable of bending in upwardly or downwardly biased direction whereby said discontinuous blade edges define curved lines conforming to the curvature of a surface to be painted prior to contact therewith.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 0 Re. 12,697 Hess Sept. 24, 1907 930,690 Ridgely Aug. 10, 1909 1,772,520 Rangitsch Aug. 12, 1930 1,789,627 Hill Jan. 20, 1931 2,595,536 Pastoret May 6, 1952 

